The present invention relates to sawmill apparatus provided with log supporting means and particularly to means for supporting boards or cants sawn from a log to prevent splitting or damage where the board or cant is finally separated from the log.
In a sawmill apparatus a log or cant is driven through stationary bandsaws by means of a carriage apparatus which engages the log or cant centrally on either end. The carriage may take more than one pass through the bandsaws, and may rotate the log between passes for sawing in perpendicular directions. The cants or boards removed from the main cant or log are dropped onto an outfeed conveyor located below the path of the carriage apparatus and by means of which severed material is conveyed to resaw apparatus or the like for sawing the boards or cants into dimensioned lumber. Although it is possible to provide a carriage construction to reduce the vertical drop of cants or boards after being sawn, nevertheless, as a cant or board is being sawn, substantially the only support therefor is the common or unsawn region where the cant or board is still joined to the log. Toward the end of the carriage stroke, only a narrow region joins the cant or board to the log, and the rest of the cant or board hangs in cantilever fashion exerting a considerable moment at the unsawn end until the cant may split off, leaving a jagged edge or break rather than a sawn edge. Of course, this jagged edge lowers the quality of the lumber and may affect the length of a board which can be provided from a given log if the end has to be resawn.